Joyce DiDonato’s capacity for characterization is as astounding as the range and flexibility of her voice. This new collection showcases DiDonato’s multi-faceted art, and the wealth of opportunities open to a mezzo-soprano by presenting her as different characters - both male and female - from the same opera story. The program features several roles that DiDonato has sung on stage, such as Rossini’s Cenerentola, Bellini’s Romeo, and Mozart’s Cherubino. The ‘flip sides’ of those characters are roles that have not been featured in her repertoire: the Prince from Massenet’s Cherubini; the Nurse from Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, and both Chérubin (from Massenet’s ‘sequel’ to Le nozze di Figaro) and Susanna. Accompanying Joyce DiDonato in this tour de force is the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lyon under the company’s Principal Conductor Kazushi Ono, another artist who successfully embraces an extraordinary diversity of musical idioms.

"DiDonato has become many an opera lover's favorite. And on this sparkling new album, it's easy to hear why. The voice is radiantly gorgeous up and down the registers; she also has a killer technique and a keen sense of drama in the music. Just listen to the sequence at 8:27 into "Se mai senti" from Gluck's Sesto, which culminates on a breathtaking, whisper-soft trill on the Italian word "more"... And on fire she is: in everything from the ravishing opening bars of Massenet's "Je suis gris" that begins the album to the rapid-fire runs in the showstopper from Rossini's Cenerentola (Cinderella)... On an intellectual level, plenty of themes and cross (dressing) references pop up here. But it's best to forget all that and just luxuriate in the DiDonato sound." -NPR

"This playfully-conceived recital sees the American singer take full advantage of the vocal and gender range of the mezzo repertoire, voicing not only the eager young men of her many "trouser" roles but also passionate heroines. With the dramatic flair and vocal acuity of an operatic natural, she sings an array of roles including Massenet's Chérubin and Ariane, Mozart's Susanna, Berlioz's Marguerite, Bellini's Romeo, and Strauss's Composer. Along with DiDonato's dizzying characterizations, the album explores the same stories in operatic treatments by different composers" -BroadwayWorld

”this CD gives enormous pleasure in rare as well as familiar repertoire. When embellishments are called for they are unhackneyed and perfectly in keeping with the composer's style, and the mezzo invariably finds the right color for each portrayal. Perhaps the best thing about this recital is that everything DiDonato sings sounds spontaneous, as if the character--her- or himself--were actually experiencing it for the first time. Being an American, I'd like to chalk this up to her Yankee pluckiness, but it's really something else: She's a great artist. The Lyon forces under Kazushi Ono are fine partners.”-Classicstoday.com

BBC Music Magazine Opera Choice - April 2011

"It's playful, as well as an ideal vehicle for her glorious mezzo voice in which the most fiendish coloratura ornaments and trills sound effortless." -The Observer

"I can find nothing but praise...This recording gives enormous pleasure in rare as well as familiar repertoire...the mezzo invariably finding the right colour for each portrayal...Perhaps the best thing about this recital is that everything DiDonato sings sounds spontaneous, as if the character her- or himself were actually experiencing it for the first time." -International Record Review

"She is steadily terrific: technically secure, nimble and clean in her flourishes and roulades, always alert to dramatic nuance. Nor do we lack variety. First, a swaggering, tipsy aria for Cherubino from the luxuriously coloured Chérubin (Massenet again). Then we jump to Mozart’s Susanna, intimate and tender in The Marriage of Figaro. So it goes: jolting, fascinating, entertaining." -The Times

"DiDonato's tone and phrasing catch a genuine male authority in the first entry of Bellini's Capuleti Romeo...Cendrillon and the (to Anglophones) rare Ariane are utter, and quite dark, delights. Elsewhere the Mozart is enjoyed and well negotiated - the lower colouring makes Susanna sound mature and knowing." -Gramophone

"Proof of DiDonato's consummate musicianship is everywhere here...For sheer beauty of tone, legato that defies gravity and singing that restores your faith in human nature, listen last of all to what Joyce DiDonato does with Berlioz's 'D'amour l'ardente flamme'. Diva or Divo, this is the real thing." -BBC Music Magazine

"Listening to DiDonato depict both [Cherubino and Susanna]...brings home just how deeply this singer can inhabit character...The American mezzo delivers this ambitious, imaginative programme with intelligence, musicality, vocal brilliance and immense charm. There's some lovely playing from the Lyon Opera Orchestra too." -Classic FM